Guiding those who want to go solo

Caitlyn Coverly, Financial Post11.01.2012

Graduate Meghan Kirwin, poses for a picture with one of her mentors, Steve Farlow, executive director of the Schlegal Centre of Entrepreneurship, School of Business and Economics, Wilfrid Laurier University. After graduating, Kirwin started her own human resources consultancy business.

According to the GMAC Global Management Education Graduate Survey, approximately 5% of all graduating students worldwide expect to be self-employed or an entrepreneur after graduation. This number has increased 10% over the past five years, indicating today's students are eager to be taught entrepreneurial skills within higher education programs.

This new demand creates a major challenge for universities. How do they prepare students for careers that don't even exist yet, while giving them the confidence and applied knowledge to create the jobs themselves?

Steve Farlow is the executive director of the Schlegel Centre for Entrepreneurship at Wilfrid Laurier University. He says Laurier's Innovation and Entrepreneurship (I&E) MBA program was created in 2006 as a response to this unmet need.

"The job growth in Canada is really centred around young, emerging companies that are no more than five years old," said Mr. Farlow. "Students need to be prepared to enter this viable market."

Mr. Farlow said the community of Waterloo, home of Laurier's main campus, is a hive for emerging companies with close to 700 startups currently in operation. "This is really the driver for the program," said Mr. Farlow.

Accepting fewer than 20 students each year, Laurier's one-year MBA program for entrepreneurs focuses on collaboration, providing students with ongoing support and mentorship from entrepreneurs within the community as well as a collaborative workspace known as The Sandbox, where students can come together to brainstorm and develop their businesses.

"I had access to a panel of experts, including successful business owners in my community, marketing and sales professionals and even legal counsel," said Ms. Kirwin. "Frequent meetings with them and Steve provided me with insight I wouldn't have had access to on my own."

Ms. Kirwin now offers HR mentorship to current Laurier I&E students as her way of giving back to the program that gave her the start she needed.

While programs such as Laurier's are catering to a new demand, enrolment is limited and the program requires students to apply with a viable business idea they wish to cultivate. Other schools have taken a different approach in preparing students to become entrepreneurs.

The University of Western Ontario's Richard Ivey School of Business recognized the student demand for an entrepreneurship MBA almost 10 years ago, being one of the first post-secondary institutions in Canada to offer such a program.

Ivey's program is a compressed, one-year MBA with the option of an entrepreneurship certificate upon graduation. The highlight of this program is the Ivey New Venture Project in which students complete their own business plan and pitch it to alumni at the end of the year.

"The case method in which this program is founded upon really focuses on providing students with applied knowledge," said Stewart Thornhill, executive director of the Pierre L. Morrissette Institute for Entrepreneurship at Ivey.

Mike Holmes completed Ivey's entrepreneurship MBA in April and has gone on to further develop his business within the MaRS JOLT technology accelerator program. His business, SlingRide, is an online ridesharing network that allows drivers and passengers to safely connect, coordinate, and reduce their cost of travel.

Mr. Holmes said his experience in the Ivey MBA program prepared him for the end of October where he will pitch SlingRide to potential investors.

"In-class discussions helped develop my ability to defend my own ideas in front of a classroom of 60 of my peers who have also prepared the same case materials and likely have different views or opinions," said Mr. Holmes. "While this isn't directly pitching to investors, it develops the same skill set."

Mr. Holmes also said several communications courses, including an elective called High Impact Presentations, involved taping students' presentations and the professor would then provide detailed feedback, allowing students to see their mistakes and learn how to correct them.

"I know what to expect now and that confidence is invaluable, said Mr. Holmes."

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